Prime Minister Shinzo Abe dissolved the lower house Thursday for an Oct. 22 general election, in a bid to maintain his hold on power amid a reorganization of opposition parties under the leadership of popular Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike.
Abe dissolved the chamber as soon as it convened at noon for an extraordinary session, telling reporters later Thursday he did so "having decided that we must obtain the public's support and understanding to overcome the national crises of a declining birth rate and the threat from North Korea."
But the timing of the election, campaigning for which will start on Oct. 10, suggests the premier's real goal is to give the opposition as little time as possible to mount a united challenge to the ruling coalition he has led for nearly five years.
Opposition parties boycotted Thursday's session, saying Abe called the election to avoid further questioning in parliament over cronyism allegations leveled at him earlier in the year.
The disapproval rating for the Abe Cabinet exceeded the approval rating in a Kyodo News poll early this month, although his lot had improved somewhat from July, when the approval rating had plunged to just 35.8 percent.
In a sign that Abe is seeking to maintain rather than expand his hold on power, he said Monday that the coalition of his Liberal Democratic Party and the smaller Komeito party will only aim to secure a simple majority -- at least 233 seats -- following reforms that will shrink the chamber to a postwar low of 465 seats.
The ruling coalition currently holds 320 seats in the lower house, including the one occupied by the speaker.
Shortly after the dissolution of the House of Representatives, the main opposition Democratic Party approved a proposal by its leader Seiji Maehara to effectively disband and merge with the "Kibo no To" (party of hope) established this week.
Koike, formerly an LDP lawmaker, will lead the party from outside the Diet. She reiterated Thursday that she has no intention of quitting her current job to run for a lower house seat.
The Democratic Party will stand no candidates, either in electoral districts or under the proportional representation system.
Instead, its members who want to run with Koike's party -- subject to her approval -- will be able to do so while still having access to the Democratic Party's political funding and regional support networks.
"We want to make Kibo no To bigger and achieve a change of power in this lower house election," Maehara said at a press conference later Thursday.
The Democratic Party had already been losing lawmakers, with some becoming founding members of newly formed Kibo no To. Koike and those founding lawmakers promised Wednesday to "unshackle" Japanese politics from vested interests through "reform conservatism."
On its own, the party was planning to put up candidates nationwide, but too few to bring about a change of government even if it performs well.
But adding candidates from the Democratic Party is set to improve the new party's fortunes.
To distinguish itself from the LDP, with which it shares basic conservative principles, Koike's party will propose postponing the consumption tax hike from 8 to 10 percent planned for October 2019.
"A consumption tax hike will only cool down consumption," Koike told a press conference Thursday, proposing instead to make better use of state-owned assets to rebuild the country's finances.
Koike also said her party will "consider what process would be necessary to have zero nuclear power plants by 2030." The Abe administration wants to bring the country's reactors back online while claiming it will "reduce dependence" on nuclear power.
Explaining Monday his decision to call a general election, Abe said a vote is needed to secure a fresh mandate for his decision to change how the government will use additional revenue from the tax increase, and for more "strong diplomacy" on North Korea.
Abe unveiled a 2 trillion yen ($17.8 billion) education-centric policy package to be paid for by using more of the extra consumption tax revenue for social welfare than previously planned.
The change means less money for paying down the massive government debt, and Abe acknowledged the goal of achieving a primary budget surplus by fiscal 2020 is "impossible."
That means the government cannot finance its annual budgets without issuing more bonds and additional debt.
Abe was no doubt aware that the longer he left the election -- which legally could be held no later than December next year -- the greater number of candidates would likely be fielded nationwide by Koike's emerging party.
Heading into the election, the LDP is set to retain its goal of overseeing the first-ever amendment of the Japanese Constitution.
Koike's new party is also in favor of debating a constitutional amendment but puts less emphasis than the LDP on the importance of altering the war-renouncing Article 9.
To formally propose an amendment to the document, which has remained as is since coming into force in 1947, lawmakers in favor of the change must secure two-thirds majorities in both Diet chambers.
